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Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered by Bereavement Black Borders
ON THE BODY O:F THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON
LYING IN STATE.
I.
THOU art on earth ! not in thy hero's guise,
But hovering, mi.dway 'twixt the earth and skiC's,
An angel spirit ; in thy rich fraught bier,
Kept from decay by England's heart-wrung tear.
II.
Thou livest yet-Oh, happy be thy sleep !
And angels o'er the.e sweetest vigils keep !
There is no death for thee-the great-tho brave ;
Thy spirit lives-thy dust may seek tho grave.
III.
Thou art alive-thine eagle eye may close,
Thy voice for evC'r sink in death's repose;
What if thy life its earth-wove thread havr. Hpun,
Thy glory, new born, hath its life begun.
IV.
As thou art speeding to thy shrouded rest,
Thine ORPHAN'D FAME hath found a fostering breast;
Nurs'd by fond England---cradled by the age-
Rear'd by old Time-and shrin'd in History's page.
v.
Thou canst not die ! but living in THAT child,
The angels whisper, in their accents mild,
"Flesh, kiss the earth-soar, Spirit, to the sky !
Thy fame is foster'd by Posterity ! "
ROSE ELLEN TEMPLE.
October, 1852.